Annoying fault

[SelfLoadingRifle]

My laptop has recently developed an annoying fault. Every 30 minutes or so, Combat Mission cuts out in mid-game and reverts to desktop. I then have to click on the CM logo at the bottom to resume play. It also does this with I-tunes when I am watching a film, so I am sure that it isn't the CM software.

Does anyone more computer literate than I am know what might be causing the problem?

Many thanks,

SLR

P.S. I am running Windows 7

[Schrullenhaft]

As a broad guess, your laptop may be overheating. But with overheating I would also expect that the system would be unstable or shut down at that point too rather than just an application closing down.

Quite awhile ago we had problems with CMSF and ATI/AMD Radeon Catalyst drivers 9.4 - 9.9 where the game would shut down 5 - 20 minutes into playing it. This was an OpenGL bug in the AMD drivers which was rectified in the 9.10 Catalysts and later. However iTunes does not use OpenGL to my knowledge, so that alone would not explain the similar issue with iTunes.

Are any errors accompanying your application shut downs ? Do you have any other system instabilities once these programs shut down ? Do you typically reboot the computer after these shutdowns ?

[SelfLoadingRifle]

Thanks for answering... The laptop isn't overheating and there are no other instabilities. I have tried rebooting, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.

SLR

[Schrullenhaft]

When the game shuts down, can you immediately restart it or do you get an error doing so ? Is it necessary to reboot the computer in order to run the game again ?

What laptop do you have and what video chip and drivers does it have ? Have you tried shutting down as many utilities and programs BEFORE running CMSF ? If the game is shutting down almost exactly every 30 minutes, then it sounds like something is interfering with the game (some sort of utility or service). The games actually shut down completely and not just minimize, correct ? There is no error message accompanying these shut downs, correct ?

[SelfLoadingRifle]

In answer to your questions...

I can immediately start the game. It doesn't shut down completely, it just minimises.

There are no error messages.

I don't have to reboot. Also, doing so hasn't solved the problem.

For the record, the laptop is an HP Pavilion g series quad core with AMD Radeon graphics.

The only programs and utilities that seem to be running are Steam and Skype. I will try turning both of those off and see what happens.

Again, many thanks.

[Schrullenhaft]

If the game is just minimizing, then something is forcing it to do so. It is taking the 'attention' of the system, including the Explorer interface (desktop). This sounds like a security program or something else that is 'popping up' that forces the game to minimize. I don't think Steam or Skype would do this, but you have something loaded that is interfering with full-screen display on a regular basis.

Go to the Start Menu > Search box (at the bottom). Type in (without quotes):

'msconfig'

This is the System Configuration Utility. Go to the 'Startup' tab and click the 'Disable All' button. This will prevent a lot of things from loading up, including part of your security software. Click 'Apply' and 'OK' and reboot your computer. Try out CMSF and see if it closes down within 30 minutes or not.

If the issue persists, then the problem is quite a bit more complicated and would potentially involve uninstalling programs/services, etc. If this DOES resolve the issue, then one of these utilities in that Startup group is the culprit. You'll have to narrow them down by restoring items one at a time and see if the problem returns after each is enabled (and you reboot after each item is enabled, so that it loads up).

[LUCASWILLEN05]

I have Steam and have not had a problem. Perhaps you have a virus or malware? Check fr that. Failing everything else there is the |"nuclear option" to eturn your computer to factory settings which means a lot of reinstalling etc